


A change for the better

by shaggingtomlinson



Series: A change for the better [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, i wish i could come up with good tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 14:33:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1229983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaggingtomlinson/pseuds/shaggingtomlinson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They'd known each other for as long as both of them could remember, but they had never gotten along, not even once. Zayn had been bullying Liam since kindergarten, just starting off with throwing different names in his direction. Then he had moved on to hurting him. It was never anything really bad, like broken bones or anything to land him in the hospital, but he had received a lot of punches and gotten pushed into various items. He had been pushed down the stairs one time even, but he got out of it with just a small bump to his head. Liam considered himself lucky after that happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A change for the better

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to [Erin](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ViolentEcstasy/profile) for betaing for me!

“Hey Payne!”

 

It was just a habit to turn around when someone yelled his name, even if it was just his last name and there was only one person calling him that in his entire school. In the back of his mind, he knew he shouldn't have turned around. Something bad always happened when he did. He should have recognised his voice. Why didn't he never learn?

 

“Think fast!”

 

There wasn't enough time to even think fast, because not even a second later he was hit straight in the face with a football. Of course, Zayn Malik would be the one throwing the ball. Didn't he always?

 

Liam reached up towards his nose where the ball had hit the hardest and he could feel the blood seeping from it. He needed to visit the nurse again, great. That would be the sixth time this week. And it was only Wednesday.

 

He refused to react to Zayn's laughing and taunting though, and just left with a glare in his direction.

 

He hates Zayn with passion and the urge to just punch him just once was growing stronger and stronger each day. But Zayn wasn't worth his time and he was not going to stoop to his level, he had more pride than that. It didn't stop him from thinking horrible thoughts and wishing horrible things to happen to him though.

 

They'd known each other for as long as both of them could remember, but they had never gotten along, not even once. Zayn had been bullying Liam since kindergarten, just starting off with throwing different names in his direction. Then he had moved on to hurting him. It was never anything really bad, like broken bones or anything to land him in the hospital, but he had received a lot of punches and gotten pushed into various items. He had been pushed down the stairs one time even, but he got out of it with just a small bump to his head. Liam considered himself lucky after that happened.

 

He never quite understood why Zayn did all of those things to him, but he tried to ignore it as much as he could. He didn't hate Zayn at that point, he just didn't like him. It wasn't until Zayn had broken his Buzz Lightyear figure in the first grade that Liam had started to really hate him. At that age, his little figure was his most prized possession. His parents had given him it for his birthday right before school had started and he honestly didn't go anywhere without it and he rarely let it out of his sight. He even took it with him to the bathroom.

 

Zayn broke it at school though, when Liam had been called up to the front of the class to write the alphabet. Zayn had snatched it from his desk while he had his back against them and just broken his head off. He could hear the snap from across the classroom and he immediately knew what it was. He already had tears in his eyes when he turned around in horror to actually see the state of it. Everyone was laughing at him, he could see it, but he couldn't hear it. All he could hear was the snap playing over and over in his head.

 

The teacher had been so angry at Zayn and had yelled at him for a good five minutes before sending him to the principal's office. She followed shorty after when she was sure that Liam was okay and that the rest of the class was working on something.

 

Liam learned later that week when he quietly asked their teacher why he hadn't seen Zayn for so long that his parents had transferred him to another school, which Liam was perfectly happy with. He hoped to never see Zayn again.

 

\---

 

Luck wasn't on his side for that one though since he and Zayn ended up at the same secondary school and in the same class. Zayn hadn't changed one bit. He just continued right where he left off when they had last seen each other. It just got slightly worse at that point.

 

Every single time he walked up to his locker to find a note with different words of insults in it. Sometimes it would be someone that had already been written, the most common ones being “nerd” and “faggot”. He would also find important assignments laying in a pile of ash in or in front of his locker and his locker would be broken up and bent. He had given up going to the principal with it, just asking the janitor to fix it instead. Sometimes Liam didn't even need to ask, he just needed to show up in front of him and he would understand immediately.

 

Even the nurse was used to seeing Liam in her office that she didn't look surprised when he showed up with a bloody nose anymore. She just rushed him in, ordered him to sit and start whatever she needed to do to stop the bleeding. And then she would give him the usual lecture about telling the principal. Liam never did – Zayn had friends after all. He didn't. He had to protect himself.

 

Liam would always thank her a lot when she was done and she would just brush it off like it wasn't a huge deal, it was her job after all, but Liam would still thank her and while she handed him a note for his teacher he silently begged her not to tell anyone why he was there. She thankfully never did.

 

\---

 

He could not describe how much he hated Liam. He just hated every single thing about him. He hated how smart he was and how he always had to have the teachers attention. He hated how caring and loving Liam's parents where with him and how perfect Liam pretended to be.

 

If he said that out loud to people, they'd just laugh about it and say that he was just jealous and that he needed to get over himself, but he was as far from jealous of Liam as he could be. Liam wasn't worth being jealous of, he didn't have anything to be jealous about. It was all just an act on Liam's part, he wasn't perfect, he wasn't even near it. And that's why he wasn't jealous. He could see trough everything.

 

Zayn was so much better than Liam. He had good grades, he was popular, he had great friends, he was the captain of their school's football team and his parents loved him lots. Sure they weren't that good at showing it, but he knew they did. They've told him before.

 

Liam however had nothing like that. He didn't have any friends, just books. He wasn't good at anything that was actually worth something, only nerdy stuff like reading and studying. And his parents hated him. They would buy him everything he wanted just so that they didn't have to deal with him and wouldn't expect them to tell him that they loved him. Because they didn't. He wasn't worth loving.

 

He had seen it with his own eyes. He had seen them at the mall and his parents was walking around with fake smiles on their faces and bought everything Liam pointed at, but they never once said that they loved him.

 

He wasn't spying on them, not at all. He just happened to be there at the same time as they did, they just didn't see him. He wasn't hiding behind the shelves and carts, what he needed was on those shelves and carts.

 

\---

 

It wasn't particularly fun for Liam to wake up early, he would much rather just stay in bed and sleep the whole day instead. He didn't want to go to school, not because he didn't like learning new stuff, because that part he did enjoy quite much, but he just didn't want to get hurt yet again. His nose was still a bit swollen from the ball that had hit him the day before. He had to get up though and he had to go to school. He couldn't disappoint his parents. He needed the best grades he could get so that he could apply to the best Uni he could find far away from Wolverhampton and the bad memories. And also as far away from Zayn as he could get. I didn't want to see Zayn again for the rest of his life.

 

He had a pretty standard morning routine and it never really changed. He got up, he showered, he brushed his teeth, got dressed, straightened his hair, ate breakfast, kissed his mum and dad goodbye and left for school. He liked it like that, it was the most stable thing that he had in his life and he didn't want to change that. He needed something to keep him from going mad.

 

He usually arrived to school half and hour early so that he could sit in the library and continued reading on whatever his current book was. It was the only time when he was at school that he felt safe and in peace and didn't feel like someone was watching his every move. He usually sat there until the morning bell rang and he had to go to class and face the day. It was just a part of his morning routine that he liked.

 

That particular morning though he was so caught up in his book that he completely missed the first ring of the bell. When the second bell rang and he looked up to see the that there was absolutely no body left in there except him, he just knew that he was going to be late.

 

He kept cursing to himself as he walked to his class as quickly as possible, hoping that his teacher wouldn't yell at him or loudly ask him if he had a note.

 

He stumbled inside the classroom five minutes late and the second he stepped in 20 pairs of eyes landed on him, not once stopping to stare as he quietly as possible went to his seat. He could hear mumbles all around him, some of them mentioning that he didn't turn in a note. One person however had to loudly point that out.

 

“I never though I'd see the day when Payne would come late for class without a note. What did you do Payne? You do look a little flushed and breathless. Did you have a quick one with the janitor before you ran in here? Did you suck him off?”

 

They all started laughing and gave each other high fives, but Liam ignored it, like he always did. It wasn't like he hadn't heard it before and he figured that they'd probably catch up on how often he went to see the janitor about his closet. He just sat still on his chair and started to type up what he had missed from the blackboard.

 

“Okay, calm down, that's enough!”

 

Most of the class was a bit afraid of their teacher, having seen her throw quite a few tantrums through the years of having her as a teacher. As soon as she raised his voice a little bit, they all quieted down, except for Zayn and his closest friends in the back.

 

“Would you care to explain why you're late, Mr. Payne? Didn't you get a note from whomever you were seeing?”

 

This was what he was afraid would happen. He didn't want to loudly explain why he was late, it would just give everyone even more of a reason to laugh and pick at him.

 

“No, sorry. I wasn't with anyone. I was just so into my book this morning that I didn't hear the first bell. It won't happen again, I promise.”

 

She gave him a small smile, nodded and turned back to continued to write on the blackboard. Liam let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding and silently thanked her for not making an big deal out of it. It was the first time he had been late without having a note after all.

 

\---

 

“Mr. Malik and Mr. Payne, do you mind staying behind for a minute? I'd like to talk to you.”

 

Zayn was half way out the door when he heard his name and he had to almost push his friends out the door just to get them out of there before he could walk back in. It wasn't the first time he had to say behind, having done a quite a few things in the past to get a lecture or two, but it was the first time that he had to stay behind with Liam, which confused him. He could understand why his friends were so eager to stay behind as well. He wasn't that worried though, he knew Liam wouldn't tell on him. He didn't have the balls to do that. He probably just had to apologize for the comment he made earlier.

 

Liam was probably more confused than he was, if the look on his face was anything to go by. Probably thought he never did anything that wrong that he had to be held back, even though he was late to class. Zayn always got told off for being late, so why shouldn't Liam?

 

Just in time for the last student to leave the classroom, their teacher finished up washing off the blackboard and turned around to talk to them.

 

“Now, I'm gonna be honest and say that this is probably not the best idea, but it's the only way I can think off. First of all, Mr. Malik, you're grade in this class is too low and if you ever bothered to read the school rules, they say that you need at least a C in all of your classes to be able to play on any of the school teams. As far as I've heard, you're pretty good in all of your other classes, but you only have a D in this class. You need an A on your test next month to be able to bump it up, if you don't get that I have to tell the coach.”

 

His heart almost fell to the ground when he heard that. He had done everything he could to keep his grades up and this one grade couldn't be the one to ruin what he had worked for. He loved playing football and he had worked so hard to get where he's at to just be kicked off just like that. They couldn't do that to him.

 

“But you can't do that to me. Football is the only thing I love about this godforsaken school. The team needs me. I'm their captain and the best player on the team, they'll lose without me. I can't let that happen. They'll hate me for it.”

 

He wanted to laugh. It was a joke right? Maybe this was Liam's plan to get back at him. It wasn't funny and he'd never let Liam get away with it. It would be the stupidest thing Liam had ever done and he would regret it.

 

“I'm sorry Mr. Malik, but I don't make the rules. You've been slacking a lot and you haven't turned in a lot of your assignments. I don't see that much effort in class either and you keep disturbing Mr. Payne, which isn't helping your grade at all.”

 

Liam hadn't said a single word the whole time they've been there. He was just sitting there listening to everything. He didn't fully understood why he was there in the first place. Great, Zayn's grade isn't as good as it's supposed to be. He didn't really care as long as it wasn't his grade and he knew that he was far away from a D. So why was he here? He didn't have anything to do with Zayn's failing as far as he could tell, except being Zayn's favourite thing to pass time on in class.

 

“I do have an option for you though and that's why Mr. Payne is here. He's the best student in this class by far and he's the only one who actually pays attention the whole time. And since you seem to love talking to him in class, I'll let you do it outside class as well. At least for the next month. But if you don't see it as something good, look at it as a punishment for that awful suggesting you came with earlier today.”

 

Everything around him just froze. Was their teacher insane? Besides coming late without a note for the first time today, what had he ever done? Why was she punishing him? This wasn't good at all. He was probably going to end up in the hospital in the near future.

 

He didn't say anything about it though. It would be great in his uni applications, regardless of who he had to tutor and what he had to go through. And he didn't want to disappoint his teacher more than he had done that day. It would probably not happen anyway, Zayn would never agree to it. It only took seconds to get that confirmed.

 

“No, no, nope, no way. Not going to happen. There's not a chance in hell that I'm going to get help from Payne. I can study on my own.” 

 

Zayn was fuming at this point. This wasn't happening, it was still just a joke. They would start laughing at him any minute now. If this was real, it was a really shitty punishment for something that small.

 

“You can do that, I'm not gonna force you, but do you really want to take the chance and get kicked off the team if it doesn't work out? It's your choice, I just figured that you wanted to stay on the team. You're the captain after all, they need you to win.”

 

It was not fair to use his words against him, but she did have a point. He was still positive it was just a joke, but he could play along for a little bit, at least not give them more to laugh about.

 

“Fine, what do I have to do?” 

 

She actually clapped her hands together in satisfaction and she looked genuinely happy that he had agreed to do it. Wasn't she just going to tell him that she was only joking?

 

“That's great! I'll go and talk to your next teacher that I let you have this period off to talk. Your grades are good enough in that class that you can afford missing one anyway. You'll just stay here and talk about how you're gonna do this and how often you'll do it. I suggest at least two times a week if not more, but it's up to you. You have to meet up at least once a week though, don't try to press everything into one day just to get done. I'll see you both in class tomorrow. Don't be late!” 

 

She grabbed her bag and all the items she needed from her desk before she stepped out of the classroom with another smile in their direction. As soon as she had closed the door behind her Zayn was walking towards Liam.

 

“I don't know or care what you did to get this to happen, nor do I know what you're planning, but I need to pass this test whatever it takes. Just follow whatever I tell you and you'll be fine. We're gonna meet at your house every school night until the day of the test. You can't tell anyone about this, not even your parents. You can't mention anything at school and I'll continue doing whatever I would normally do. Nothing is going to change and this won't get you any special treatment.” 

 

Liam was a bit scared that he was gonna get punched in the face right there, so he only nodded to confirm that he understood what Zayn had just told him and hoped that he wouldn't get hurt.

 

“Good. Now give me your number and address so I can get out of here. I need a smoke.” 

 

\---

 

**From Unknown:**

_I'll be over in five_

 

There was to reply or ask who sent it, he had been waiting for that text since he got home from school. No other person ever texted him or told him they'd come over, so it could only be one person really.

 

Zayn didn't waste any time when he arrived exactly five minutes after Liam had read the text, he just pushed past him to get inside and he followed Liam into the kitchen where he had set up for them to study. As much as he wanted to be rude, it wasn't how his mother had raised him, so he had set up a few bowls of snacks and various drinks on the table between all his books and papers, just so he wouldn't waste time looking for it when Zayn came over.

 

“Do you want anything to drink before we start?” 

 

Zayn just ignored him at first, opting for just sitting down and throwing out his books on the table to get ready, but he looked up when he was done with everything.

 

“No, we need to get this over with as fast as possible. I don't want to be here any longer than necessary.” 

 

Liam couldn't argue with that, he didn't particularly want Zayn there any longer then he needed to either, so he just sat down and looked trough the worksheet their teacher had given him just before he was about to leave school. They had a lot to work on.

 

They didn't talk about anything other than what they had to, not a single word that wasn't meant to help Zayn study was said in the three hours that Zayn stayed there for. Liam didn't even need to ask what he was doing when Zayn finally had enough, packed his stuff and walked out of the house without even a gesture in Liam's direction.

 

\---

 

It stayed like that for the next week. Zayn texted, showed up, they'd study and then Zayn left. Nothing changed at all. Zayn would still do all the stuff he did before everything happened and Liam would just ignore it and try to stay out of his way. The trips to the nurse didn't get any less frequent.

 

A week and three days into their whole tutoring session they were interrupted by Liam's mum when she entered the kitchen while they were studying. She wouldn't usually come home until after Zayn had left, so it took Liam by surprise a little when she entered.

 

“Hi honey, how's it going?” 

 

She set down the bags of groceries that she was caring and came up behind him to kiss him on the cheek and smiled softly to Zayn when she saw him sitting across the table watching them.

 

“You must be Zayn. I'm Liam's mum, Karen.” 

 

She offered him her hand and he easily took it and smiled back.

 

“Yeah, I am.” 

 

Liam must've told her about him and what he's doing there and he wanted to just yell at Liam for doing it, they had a deal to not tell anyone. He couldn't do that in front of Liam's mum though.

 

“It's nice to meet you. Liam's never had any friends over and I'm so happy that he finally does, so I thought that I'd come home a bit early from work just to meet you. Liam's alone in his room for the most part and I don't like seeing that.” 

 

Zayn could see the faint blush in Liam's cheek, obviously not wanting his mum to tell him how lonely Liam is. And he clearly didn't want Zayn of all people to know about that.

 

“Would you like to stay for dinner? I'm sure you must be hungry. I'm making fried chicken, it's Liam's favourite.” 

 

As if it was a sign, he could feel the pain in the pit of his stomach that he was hungry. Just the mention of fried chicken and a proper home cooked meal made his mouth water. He hadn't had a proper home cooked meal since before his grandmother died.

 

He accepted with a smile, just like the one he had given her when they shook hands. He wasn't going to be rude to someone who got home early from work just to meet him.

 

\---

 

For Liam dinner was the most awkward thing he had ever experienced. Not only was he sat opposite of Zayn who was eating away and talking away with his family, but he had also bumped his feet into Zayn's a fair amount of times when he stretched his legs out. He wasn't used to have anyone sitting opposite him.

 

His dad had come home a few minutes before dinner and he and Zayn had instantly started talking together once they had introduced themselves. His sisters had been a little bit late for dinner, but they didn't waste time to start talking to Zayn either, like he was a regular guest.

 

It was like they all completely ignored him in favour of Zayn and he was just sitting there poking at his food. He had lost his appetite.

 

“Is everything all right Liam? You've barely eaten anything.”

 

He looked up at the sound of his mum's voice saying his name and smiled at her. He didn't want her to worry.

 

“Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I'm not as hungry as I thought I was. I ate a lot at school today and had a sandwich before Zayn came over. Don't worry about it.” 

 

She just nodded and smiled back at him before she turned back towards Zayn and the rest of his family to continue with their conversation.

 

He didn't really like having Zayn there talking to them, pretending that nothing was wrong and that he and Liam were actually friends. They weren't and he wished that they knew everything Zayn had ever done to him since kindergarten.

 

But they didn't and he wasn't going to tell them and Zayn wasn't going to tell them, so instead he just had to sit there and pretend that everything was all right and that having Zayn eating dinner with them was not a problem at all.

 

\---

 

Later that night, when Zayn was at home and in his bed, he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened earlier that day. It had been awkward in the beginning but once he started talking to Liam's family he felt completely different. He felt welcomed and safe.

 

He felt sort of bad for Liam's parents when they told him how happy they were that he was there and how wonderful it was for Liam to finally have someone to spend some time with. They were genuinely nice to him and as he laid there thinking about everything he had done towards Liam, the guilt he hadn't felt before came to the surface all at once.

 

They had kept telling him about Liam and what a wonderful person he was. They told him about how hard it was for Liam to make friends and that once people got to know what Liam had to go through as a baby, they just suddenly didn't want to be with him anymore, as if it was contagious. He never knew that Liam had to visit the hospital several times as a child, he didn't know that he had to be monitored as often as possible just to make sure he was healthy. He learned that Liam only had one working kidney and had to a bit more careful of what he put in his body than a normal person would.

 

In the middle of everything he concluded that he was completely wrong about them and that they loved Liam so incredibly much that they would do anything to make him him happy. It just made Zayn regret everything that he had done.

 

Once they had told him about the Buzz Lightyear figure and that Liam had arrived home crying because it was broken he wished he was another person so he could beat himself up. Liam had never told them who it was and if they knew it was him, they'd probably wouldn't let him be near their son ever again. He remember that day so clearly and he remember getting the biggest kick out of seeing Liam's face that the yelling from his teacher hadn't minded him one bit. He didn't like that his parents had transferred him to another school because of that though and he had blamed Liam for that.

 

He couldn't deny the jealousy he felt when they all hugged and kissed Liam when they came home and how they kept asking him questions about if he was all right and how things where going. And they even made him is favourite food. It was all Zayn had ever wanted from his parents, but they never did anything like that to him. Most of the time, he wouldn't even get any dinner.

 

When Zayn had left their house, they had all hugged him goodbye and told him to come back anytime he wanted, they even gave him a container of leftovers that he could take home to his parents. But fuck that, is parents weren't going to get any of it. He hid the container behind his curtains with his window slightly open just to keep it cool and he could enjoy it for breakfast the next day.

 

His chances of going to sleep was zero, it was already half past two in the morning and every time he closed his eyes all he could picture was Liam across from him at the dinner table with a hint of pink covering his cheeks when he heard the stories his family was telling him. He probably didn't like that they told him that. Zayn definitely wouldn't like it if it was his parents doing that to him.

 

His stomach fluttered when he remember the feeling of Liam's feet touching his under the table and how fast Liam would pull them back once he realized. He knew he didn't do it on purpose, but Zayn had liked it and couldn't help by smile a little when he felt it.

 

It was totally weird and not like him at all. He kept thinking about how Liam's hair would curl just slightly throughout the day and how invested and safe Liam looked when he read one of his many books. It was like Liam lived in a total different world when he read and like he somehow forgot how cruel the world around him could be. How cruel Zayn could be.

 

He had to stop himself when he thought about how perfect and slightly pink Liam's lip would be when he opened them to talk.

 

Nope, that was going to far. He was not going to think about Liam's lips, they weren't anything special, it was just a pair of lips. Liam's lips.

 

He did not want to kiss them, not at all, what are you talking about.

 

\---

 

Liam's lips never disappeared from his mind though and he caught himself thinking about it all the time, even in school. He found that he really wanted to kiss them whenever he saw him and he figured that Liam would be a great kisser. How fast things had changed confused them hell out of him, but he didn't want them to change back. But he didn't tell anyone about it either. He could deal with it on his own.

 

He continued going over to Liam's house everyday and he tried to not be as hostile towards him that he used to be, but habits were hard to break so it mostly stayed the same, even at school. He continued doing the things he had always done, mostly under the influence of his friends. He felt guilty and bad after everything he did, but he couldn't stop, not now.

 

It wasn't until only five days before their huge test that he finally accepted that he had a crush on Liam, and he was okay with that, but at the same time a small part of him told him he couldn't. It had nothing to do with Liam being a boy or that it was Liam. That didn't matter one bit. His biggest problem was Liam himself.

 

How do you even tell the person you've been so cruel and mean toward your entire life that you have a crush on him? How would Liam react to that? Surely he wouldn't just accept it, confess his undying love for him as well and they'd live happily ever after. Liam would be scared and he would think that it was just one of Zayn's prank, that Zayn would dump and humiliate him as soon as he saw the perfect opportunity.

 

Zayn wouldn't do that, but Liam didn't know that. He didn't even know that Zayn had a crush on him. Maybe it was best that he didn't know.

 

Or maybe Zayn had to change his attitude and work on slowly gain Liam's trust, starting with how he treated him. So for the next five days he completely change himself. He smiled and said hi every time he saw the other boy at school. He sat down with him at lunch and came up with pointless questions about their test and what he needed to do to get the best grade he could. He even stayed for dinner every night and before he left Friday night he asked if Liam wanted to go to to the cinema with him on Saturday and he couldn't help but feel disappointed when Liam said he couldn't. He had to go to his aunt's birthday party.

 

\---

 

The ways Zayn had changed made Liam want to rip his hair out so bad. How could one person even go from completely hating you one day to being nice towards you the next? Had he actually been sad when Liam said he couldn't go with him on Saturday or was he just seeing things? And had he really hugged him?

 

\---

 

Come Sunday and the last day to study before the test Zayn was at Liam's house studying. Zayn was nervous about it and Liam just really wanted to help him. He knew how important it was for Zayn to stay on the team.

 

In Zayn's mind staying on the team wasn't that big of a deal anymore. He only wanted to pass his test of Liam's sake so that Liam could feel proud of him and himself for being a good tutor, because in Zayn's opinion Liam was the best. He just really needed to pass the test.

 

He was on his stomach on Liam's bed with endless of notes scattered all around him all containing different information that he needed to learn by the next day. It didn't matter if he didn't know them all or not though, he just needed to feel that Liam believed he could do it.

 

“Liam?”

 

Liam, who was sitting by his desk turned around in his chair to look at him. His glasses that he sometimes used lay on the tip of his nose and he had a pencil behind his hair as well as one in his mouth chewing nervously on it. He was so adorable.

 

“Yes?”

 

Zayn tried so hard not to laugh when the pencil in his mouth fell out when he talked and a little dribble of saliva trailed after it.

 

“Do you think I have any chance of passing this test?”

 

Liam picked his pencil up from the floor and dried it off the end off it before putting it back in his mouth again. It was like he was nervous about something.

 

“You'll pass without a problem. We've been over every single thing that we need to learn for it. I've quizzed you several times and you've had most of the questions right all the time. If you don't do great, then I wont do it either. I've thought you everything I know. Don't worry about it.”

 

He gave Zayn one of those smile that made his knees buckle and turned back to his desk once he knew Zayn believed him. Zayn didn't want this to change when the test was over, he wanted to stay like this forever. He yawned loudly and turned back to his paper. He couldn't sleep now, he needed to go trough it one more time.

 

When Liam heard Zayn's loud yawn he looked at the clock immediately and noticed that Zayn had stayed way longer than his usual three hours. He had also studied that much harder that what they usually did and he felt bed that Zayn had to drive home in a state like that.

 

“Zayn?”

 

Zayn looked up from his position in his bed, his eyelids almost closed because of how tired he was.

 

“Yeah?”

 

Liam suddenly because really unsure about what he was about to ask and it was probably the dumbest idea he had ever had, but he didn't want to back away now.

 

“Do you maybe want to sleep over? It's nearing midnight and you're tired. I don't want you to die on your way home.”

 

Zayn double checked the time on his phone just to be sure, but his answer had already been given when he let out yet another loud yawn.

 

“I guess that answers it, huh? But I'd like that, yeah. Thanks.”

 

He sort of looked exited about the whole thing, but Liam didn't want to question it and ruin the whole thing they had going on. It was much better this way.

 

“Great, I'll just go and grab some extra blankets and pillows. Help yourself in my closet for something to sleep in, you know where the bathroom is. I'll be right back.”

 

Liam practically jumped out of his chair and out his door to look for extra blankets and Zayn had a feeling that this was the first time Liam had ever had someone sleep over.

 

Zayn was the first person to experience what it was like to sleep over at Liam's house.

 

\---

 

Waking up next to Liam was one of the best feelings Zayn had had in the longest time. It felt safe and right to be like that. Liam didn't find their spare mattress and had offered Zayn his bed while he took the couch in the living room, but Zayn wouldn't have any of it. If somebody should sleep on the couch it should have been him. They had argued back and fourth about that for a good ten minutes before they settled on sleeping in the bed together.

 

He could tell that Liam was nervous about it, obviously not used to sharing his bed with anyone, let alone Zayn, but he had quickly gotten used to that and fallen asleep. And waking up next to Liam was something Zayn could quickly get used to. He looked so calm and peaceful. His hair was properly curly now and was sticking out everywhere and his eyes fluttered once in a while. It was endearing to watch.

 

After doing his whole morning routine and driving to school with Liam he concluded with himself that it was definitely something he wanted to do all the time. He had let Liam chose what music to listen to because he had seen how fidgety Liam had become when he took his eyes of the road just for a second. He didn't want to scare him.

 

Getting a hug and a whisper of “good luck” in his ear before they entered the classroom was guaranteed something he could get used to.

 

\---

 

Liam was sick the day they had gotten their test back and Zayn had driven over to his house as soon as school was done, both his and Liam's test safe in his backpack. He hadn't looked at them yet. He wanted Liam to be there when he found out his grade, wanted Liam to be the first one he hugged.

 

Liam looked terrible when Zayn arrived at his house. His nose was stuffed and runny and his eyes were read and swollen, but it didn't stop Zayn for thinking that he looked hot.

 

Once they were both seated on Liam's bed and facing each other he counted to three and both of them turned their paper around. He didn't let Liam have time to process what he had gotten because as soon as he saw his grade at the top of the page he flung himself across the bed and hugging Liam tight.

 

“I got an A! Thank you so much for helping me.”

 

Once again he didn't give Liam time to process what was happening before he had pulled out of the hug and crashed his lips against him instead.

 

He did however have time to register that Zayn had pulled away and tried to run away and he pulled him back onto the bed to hug him again. He could hear the series of “I'm sorry”'s that was spoken into his neck, but he brushed it off. They were going to be okay, everything was going to be okay.

 

The whole month that they had spent together only proved that people might not be who you think they are before you get to know them and that people were able to change for the better.

 

 


End file.
